Baltimore Beatdown
Some questions were answered while others came into focus in the second round of the playoffs.
The Baltimore Ravens ended the 2024 postseason with a heartbreaking 27-25 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional Round. With the defeat, they not only failed to advance to the AFC championship game for the second year in a row but they came up short in gut-wrenching fashion.
“We didn’t win this game, which is disappointing, of course,” Head coach John Harbaugh said. “It’s a big game. We didn’t end up doing the things we needed to do to win the game. We played well enough to win, but we didn’t make the plays in certain circumstances.”
Offensively, the Ravens outgained the Bills through the air and on the ground but didn’t take care good enough. Defensively, Baltimore got pushed around in the trenches and let Buffalo go 3-of-3 in the red zone in the first half and put the clamps on in the second half to give their offense a chance to mount a comeback.
The loss drops the Ravens out of the playoffs and sends them into an offseason with some tough decisions to make on the free agency front and it means they’ll have to start from ground zero in their pursuit to end their decade-plus-long Super Bowl appearance and title drought.
Here are five takeaways from Sunday’s season-ending loss at Highmark Stadium.
After not giving the ball away for nearly a month in which they played three games including the Wildcard Round, the Ravens turned the ball over three times on Sunday to the Bills none and that was the biggest difference in the game in the end. It marked just their second time not only losing the turnover battle but committing multiple turnovers in the same game—the only other was their Week 11 loss to Pittsburgh Steelers in which they finished with a 3-1 differential.
The first turnover came on a lofted pass from quarterback Lamar Jackson intended for wide receiver Rashod Bateman who broke off his route and was intercepted by Bills safety Taylor Rapp. Thankfully, the Ravens’ defense stepped up and got a stop to force a punt so it didn’t lead to any points. However, it still took away a potential scoring opportunity for his team on a day when they didn’t have much trouble or difficulty moving the ball through the air or on the ground.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the Ravens’ next two turnovers as they both led to Bills scoring drives and spoiled very promising drives for their offense where they could’ve tied or regained the lead. The second turnover was a fumble by Jackson where he corralled a bad snap from two-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum but then dropped the ball on the ground trying to escape a sack. Bills outside linebacker Von Miller scooped up the ball and returned it 39 yards to the Baltimore 24-yard line...
